Computer programs are widely available for creating drawings and other documents with graphic content. These programs incorporate a variety of tools to aid a user in creating and manipulating graphics, such as icons, images, drawings, diagrams, clip art, artwork, pictures, symbols, line drawings, and similar visual content through a computer and its associated user interface (“UI”). In addition to creating graphics from scratch, a user may acquire a predefined graphic from a graphic database and subsequently customize its color, size, orientation, shape, or other feature.
Suppliers of graphics frequently supply graphic databases written onto one or more compact disk read-only memory (“CD-ROM”) devices or similar optical medium. Configuring the graphics in the database in an industry-standard format facilitates compatibility with software programs from a wide range of vendors. Alternatively, a software vendor may supply a proprietary graphic database coupled to a drawing software package. The process of installing the drawing software onto a computer loads the graphic database onto the computer's hard drive so a user can quickly access the database's graphics.
In addition to providing a graphic database installed on a user's hard drive, a software vendor may provide access to a central graphic database over a wide-area network (“WAN”). For example, a vendor may offer access over the Internet, which is a WAN, to a public database of graphic content using a configuration that provides exclusive access to users of the vendor's software. A module in the software that is resident on the user's computer directs the software to communicate over the Internet with the vendor's site when the user requests graphic content. The vendor may regularly append and update the public database to enhance the value of the graphic database to its customers and to adapt to trends in the graphic preferences of users.
While conventional WAN-based public graphic databases are suited to graphic updates, the graphic file sizes can impede the speed with which a remote user accesses graphics from such a database. To address file transfer speed limitations, the communication link between the user and the remote database may include an application server page (“ASP”) that functions as a database gateway and facilitates expeditious information transfer. The ASP accepts user search requests, communicates with a server to seek graphics that meet the search terms, and returns metadata to the user. If a user determines that a graphic is acceptable based on the metadata, the user may elect to download the full graphic file.
Although relaying metadata through ASPs promotes efficient transfer of graphics, such transfer is generally implemented over a WAN, such as the Internet. Data that is transferring across such a WAN encounters potential time delays associated with the physical expanse of the WAN, communication bottlenecks such as WAN access interfaces, and other communication impediments.
Another problem with typical WAN-based graphic databases is that all users do not have the Internet connectivity generally associated with accessing the database. Certain enterprises have internal computer networks that are disconnected, locked down, or otherwise isolated from the Internet or other WAN. Some users' connectivity may be intermittent, slow, or unreliable. Furthermore, a fault in the WAN communication link between the user and the WAN-based graphic can disrupt a user's database access.
In addition to having communication-related limitations, WAN-based graphic databases are usually public databases that offer the same content to all the users that they serve. The content is often optimized to maximize the number of graphic choices that are available to users. Such databases generally lack provisions to provide a user with custom graphics or graphic sets that are specifically tailored to meet the standardization requirements of a specific user or set of users. That is, conventional WAN-based databases are usually incompatible with the needs of enterprises that seek to provide their internal users with a standard, consistent graphic set.
To address these representative deficiencies in the graphic database art, what is needed is a capability for managing graphic databases that serves users that are disconnected or otherwise isolated from the Internet or other WAN. Further a capability is needed to provide enterprise-based users with graphic sets that are tailored to meet specific content needs of the enterprise. Such capabilities would benefit users that need graphic content for insertion into drawings and other documents.